Hijikata's Scare
by Shouta Izukai
Summary: Shouta Izukai brings Hijikata and the Shinsengumi to an old, haunted inn. There, they start disappearing, one by one. But is it really true? Or is Hijikata just being messed with?


I was re-watching Gintama and thought this would be a lot of fun. I loved episode 20! (Watch Out For Conveyor Belts!)

* * *

"So, Shouta, what is this place?" Asked Hijikata Toushiro, vice-chief of the Shinsengumi. He stared at the brunette with the strange green eyes, trying to ignore the rundown inn behind him. Shouta just grinned mischievously.

"_Hijikata, you're always working right? Why don't you take a break? We recently rented out this really big inn, and we could take some of the Shinsengumi too. There's hot springs and everything!" _

Hijikata thought back and sighed. When he first met this kid, he seemed to be an insanely strong delinquent looking for a fight. Rumored of being unbeatable and stronger than the devil himself, he just turned out to be another messed up kid. Only difference was, his family was filthy rich.

Next to him, Shouta's twin sister Aiyu laughed. She looked at him with her bright blue eyes and gave him a knowing smile. "Don't worry about it, Toshiro-kun. Just think of this as payback for taking care of us and letting us stay with you guys." Hijikata sighed, and followed Shouta along with the rest of the Shinsengumi into the inn.

"Oi, Ossan!" Shouta called out from the doorway, before slipping off his shoes and walking in. "I'm coming in!"

At that moment an elderly man burst out of a nearby room and pounded the boy on the head. "Ow!"

"How many times have I told you? It's _Oji-chan_!" He screeched.

"What's the big deal? Same thing." Shouta replied while rubbing his head. A woman came out of the same room the old man had come from, but she didn't look grouchy.

"Now, now. He's just a kid, he doesn't know any better. Why don't we get our guests comfortable?" She said, placing a hand on the old man's shoulder.

"A kid? He's in high school already!" The old man grumbled, but didn't argue any further.

"I'm Yamada Chikako, and this grumpy old man here is my husband, Yamada Masao." The old woman said, placing a large batch of cookies on the table in the main room. "We have a game room with ping-pong in the room at the end of the hall, and the hot springs are just outside. You can choose any room you like, we have plenty." Chikako-san said, smiling sweetly.

"Thanks, obaa-san. Are my friends here yet?" Shouta asked, before running out of the room when Chikako-san nodded. He soon came back, pushing in three others, all about the same age as him.

The first one was a blonde boy with brownie-colored eyes, wearing green shorts and a blue T-shirt. The second, a girl, was wearing a simple golden sundress, and was glaring at Shouta with gray eyes that blended in with the chocolate-brown hair that framed her face. The last of them was a boy with jet-black hair and piercing gray eyes, who was protesting profusely as Shouta shoved him into the room. He wore jeans and a black T-shirt that was ripped at the end.

"These are my childhood friends, Ishikawa Hiroki, Miyazaki Tomomi, and Tanaka Akio. They'll be staying with us as well." Shouta explained, before Tomomi smacked him on the head with a textbook. "Ow! What the hell, Miyazaki! Do you bring a textbook everywhere you go?" He shouted, rubbing his head for the second time that day.

"Who wants to go to the hot spring?" Hiroki shouted, changing the subject.

"Yeah!" Everyone rushed to the hot spring nearby, some of the Shinsengumi members throwing their jackets and socks off along the way.

* * *

"That felt great!" Hiroki sighed happily as he walked out of the hot spring along with Akio, Hijikata, and Sougo.

"Hey, Hiroki, did you tell them that story?" Akio asked, Hijikata and Sougo immediately looking at him.

"What story?"

"An ancient ghost story about this inn." Shouta replied, appearing behind them.

"Gahh! Shouta! What the hell were you doing, sneaking up on us like that?" Hiroki shrieked.

"Calm down, it's not like it gets people in groups."

"Like I've been trying to say, what are you talking about?" Hijikata all but screamed, growling while both of them just laughed and led him and the rest of the guests at the inn to a big, dark room.

Hiroki sat at the front of the dark room with a flashlight, facing everyone but the inn's owners, Sougo, and Akio. "Long, long ago, in this very same inn, there lived a young man with his beautiful wife and daughter." Suddenly, Shouta got up and walked out of the room. "Shouta, where are you going?" Hiroki called.

"Bathroom. I've heard this story before anyways." He replied, waving his friend's holler.

"Ok… just be careful!" Hiroki turned back to the crowd seated anxiously in front of him. "Anyways, unbeknownst to his wife, the man was having an affair with another woman. But the wife was getting suspicious. In order to keep her quiet, the man and his mistress made a devious plot to kill the wife.

"The police assumed it to be a suicide, and the daughter soon after left the house. The man and the mistress soon got married, and lived happily ever after. But not for long. One night, the man woke up to a strange shuffling sound in the hallway. He dismissed it as an inn guest and went back to sleep. Later that night, he heard the door open. Without looking, he dismissed it as wind. When he woke up a few minutes later, he sensed something standing above him. He slowly opened his eyes-"

"AAAUUUGGGGHHHH!"

Hiroki abruptly stood up, along with Hijikata, Tomomi, Aiyu, and some other Shinsengumi members. The rest cowered as they rushed towards the scream. "Shouta!" Hiroki shouted and stopped abruptly in the doorway, eyes wide. "What is it? What happened-" Hijikata froze right behind Hiroki, staring in shock.

In the empty room were a few drops of blood, and Shouta's black ring. "That ring is a memento of his mother… he's never without it…" Hiroki mumbled in horror.

"This doesn't have anything to do with that legend… does it?" Hijikata asked slowly.

"Let me finish the story. The man looked up, and saw a beast that resembled his late wife. The beast murdered him and his new wife. The property was put up for sale, and was soon bought by the current owners. But they say that the beast still goes after handsome young men in their teenage years and their 20s… and slowly tortures them before devouring them." A long, uncomfortable silence surrounded the group as they registered this new information.

"…As far as I know, the handsomest, most popular men here is Hiroki, Akio, Okita-san, Hijikata-san, and Shouta..." Tomomi said, breaking the silence.

"Then we'll have to stay in a group." Hiroki replied. He then turned to the other Shinsengumi members who had followed them. "The rest of you should all sleep together in pairs of 2 or more, just as a precaution." He called, before dragging Hijikata out of the room in a hurry.

"Hey! What're you-" Hijikata protested, before Hiroki interrupted.

"To find Akio and Okita." Soon, Sougo was spotted, walking down the hall towards them. "Grab him!" Hiroki yelled, not slowing down one bit. Hijikata obliged, grabbing Sougo by the arm as they were pulled along.

"Akio!" Hiroki called as he burst into Akio's room. Hiroki, Hijikata, and Sougo watched as something covered by a black robe strangled Akio with long gnarled hands. A knife was imbedded in Akio's leg, where blood stuck to the hilt and blade, almost as if it was never touched by those gruesome claws, but instead stabbed itself into the raven's leg. The beast glared at the trio that had intruded on its feast with glowing red eyes before it disappeared from sight.

* * *

Sougo, Hijikata, and Hiroki sat back to back in the room, alert for any other presence. "Hey, Hiroki?" Hijikata suddenly asked.

"Yeah?"

"That room we passed earlier. Why does it have a lock on it?" Hiroki grew silent for a moment before answering.

"That's where the wife was murdered. That's also where the young man and the mistress were killed. It's supposedly the beast's lair." The silence settled back upon them like a thick fog, making it hard to breathe for Hijikata.

Suddenly, he had the uncontrollable urge to go to the bathroom. But he didn't want to go alone, where he was most likely to be attacked. Hiroki looked over at him and asked, "You okay, Hijikata?"

"I have to go to the bathroom." He mumbled in reply.

Hiroki smiled nervously in return. "It's okay. Have Sougo go with you. I'll be alright." Hijikata paused for a moment, before standing up along with Sougo.

"Fine… but take my sword for self-defense." Hijikata handed it to Hiroki, who nodded. Then he walked quickly to the bathroom, Sougo following close behind.

"That feels a lot better…" Hijikata sighed as he stepped out and walked with Sougo back to the room Hiroki was in.

But the silence didn't last long when they heard a scream from the room. "Hiroki!" He shouted as he and Sougo ran to the scene. When they opened the door, Hiroki was gone, leaving only Hijikata's sword and a few drops of blood.

"He's gone…" Sougo muttered, picking up the sword. Both of them knew that it was really not the time for Sougo to be all sadistic. But he did it anyways. "Hijikata-san, heads up." He said as he swung Hijikata's now unsheathed sword at his head.

As always, Hijikata dodged. "Sougo! This is not the time for this dammit!"

"HIJIKATA! OKITA!" A familiar voice screamed from somewhere nearby. The 2 raced into the hallway to see the locked room unlocked. The door was opened slightly and Shouta was holding on desperately to the edge of the door. He was covered in blood, and sobbing like a small child.

"Shouta!" Shouta grasped desperately onto Sougo and Hijikata's hands, and they uselessly try to pull him out of the room. Suddenly, with a hard tug, Shouta was dragged back into the room, and the door slammed close. Both Hijikata and Sougo tried to force the door open, to no avail.

"For now, we should go back to the room. It's probably dangerous here…" Hijikata advised, walking back towards the room they were just in.

"Sure."

Sougo turned around to follow Hijikata when he was forcefully pulled backwards into the room. Hijikata whirled around just in time for him to see Sougo being pulled into the room as the door shut closed after him.

"SOUGO!" Desperately, he pulled and pulled at the door, but to no avail. "Sougo! SOUGO!" After awhile, Hijikata gave up. He sat there, facing the door, hoping a friend would come out… alive. Suddenly, the lights in the hallyway shut off, and Hijikata's hand immediately flew to his sword. He heard footsteps coming from both directions, probably of 4 or 5 people.

Then he heard a voice. "Hijikata…" It was like a groaning sound, accompanied by eerie sound effects. Hijikata whirled his head around, trying to see both sides at once.

And that's when he saw them. Bloodied and battered, red-soaked bandages seen here and there, covered the zombie-like bodies of the figures moving towards him. But that wasn't what scared him. The figures were all people he knew… people who had gotten taken away by the beast of the inn. Shouta and Akio were on his left, Hiroki and Sougo on his right. They reached out for him in slow movements, looking at him with sad eyes.

Hijikata screamed, terrified…

That was when the lights turned on, and Tomomi, who had disappeared at some point, came walking up to them calmly. "You guys should cut it out now. He's already terrified to death." She said, holding up a video camera.

All the 'zombies' suddenly started cracking up, rolling on the floor in undying laughter. Hijikata just stared at them in a shocked and confused expression.

"What…" He asked, at a loss for words. Hijikata stared at the boys dying in fits of laughter, trying to register what was going on.

After calming down a bit, the boys got up and walked away, talking about it and laughing. "Hey, shouldn't you all apologize?" Tomomi advised, walking with them.

"Why? You helped out too." Shouta replied.

"Anyways," Akio interrupted, "let's get in the hot spring. We're covered in fake blood and makeup."

"Sounds good!" Hijikata stared after them, dumbfounded.

Sougo then turned around briefly to say, "Hijikata-san, I didn't know you were such a scaredycat." He then turned back around and walked away.

"Wha… HUH?"

* * *

I'll leave how they did that up to you and your imagination. If you really want to know, just ask.


End file.
